Behind The Scenes At World Superbike At Laguna Seca

I've been a Davies fan since he showed up one day to ride supermoto with us. He's a super nice guy, insanely fast rider, and I'd love to see him knock one of those Kawasaki's off the block.Scott Toepfer

The Laguna Seca round of the FIM Superbike World Championship is one of my favorite weekends of the year. WSBK, while missing some of the stars and speed and glamor and glitz of MotoGP, has a communal and friendly feel most often found in the local flat track races around the country.

It's a weekend of great racing, at one of the most iconic race tracks, in a beautiful city—and it's attended by the entire motorcycle industry (which is based in Southern California) as well as many of our readers. Oh, and my family lives in Monterey, so I get to spend the evenings on the family property drinking wine with my extended family.

This year, I spent the two days before the race taking the windiest way possible (more info coming soon), and I brought along my good friend and incredible photographer Scott Toepfer, who made a great short film called It's Better In The Wind. We spent the weekend wandering around the paddocks, hanging out at the corkscrew, meandering through Ducati Island, and watching the race. Here's what our weekend looked like from our point of view.

You'd think a two day, 500 mile ride on a Hyper wouldn't be much fun next to two Goldwings—but that's because you haven't ridden with Adam Waheed.Scott Toepfer

Riding a Hypermotard to the race means getting to park on Ducati Island. These beasts would have been much happier on the track than on a pedestal.Scott Toepfer

We made it in time for a fairly empty look at practice. It's so easy to forget how insane turn one is.Scott Toepfer

Speed unites people from the widest walks of life.Scott Toepfer

Laguna is a track unlike any other, and the practice sessions were full of teams making drastic changes.Scott Toepfer

Bryce Prince on his Superstock 600 Tuned Racing bike.Scott Toepfer

Racing is a team effort, which is no more evident than during the morning practice sessions as riders come in to make quick changes.Scott Toepfer

Corey Alexander on his Superstock 1000 Ducati race bike.Scott Toepfer

Nothing sounds quite like a racebike exiting the pits.Scott Toepfer

The first race of the day was the MotoAmerica 600 race, in which our sister publication Sport Rider's Michael Gilbert competes in.Scott Toepfer

Dani Diaz said I can hold her umbrella for the race next year, look for me on the grid.Scott Toepfer

JD Beach would go on to win the MotoAmerica Supersport race.Scott Toepfer

Both Davies and Giugliano went down in race one, which means the techs double and triple checked everything on the bikes for race two.Scott Toepfer

What a beautiful machine.Scott Toepfer

After crashing out of race one, Davies was even more focused than normal for race 2.Scott Toepfer

Giugliano often brings a lighter mood to the Aruba.it garage.Scott Toepfer

Sykes had lost by .8 seconds the previous day, and seemed intent on not repeating.Andrew Wheeler

Davies suits up.Scott Toepfer

Time for the warm up lap.Scott Toepfer

Giugliano's pre-race stretching routine has become well known amongst the garage photographers.Scott Toepfer

On the grid.Scott Toepfer

Gotta keep the heat in those tires!Scott Toepfer

The Kentucky kid had a famous Kenny or two in his corner.Scott Toepfer

The Kawasakis got off to a great start.Scott Toepfer

Hayden coming through turn one.Scott Toepfer

In the end, Sykes would fend off the Ducatis for the win.Andrew Wheeler

A well earned celebrationAndrew Wheeler

Roger Hayden and the rest of the MotoAmerica Superbike/Superstock 1000 class riders' race was up next.Scott Toepfer